Talking

Natalie will be 16 weeks old on Wednesday - that's 4 whole months!  It's hard to believe that we've had a baby for that period of time.  She is delightful, and we are so thankful to be her parents.

This week, she has been "talking" to us more than ever.  It seems like ever since we got home, she's been using that voice in all kinds of intonations to interact with us.  I'll talk with her about whatever is going on at the moment, and she focuses on my face and then takes her conversational turn.  I didn't realize that she was picking up on turn-taking until today at church.  We were sitting at the service, and I was smiling at her but not speaking.  She smiled back but stayed quiet.  When she started to fuss, I took her down to the nursery and began to talk to her - and she talked back!   It's really amazing to see all that she is taking in.  It's also a reminder that we need to be talking about uplifting things, because you never know what she is going to retain.

This ties in with my two New Year's resolutions.  The less serious one is that I'm hoping to cut down on the non-essential use of the word "like" in my vocabulary.  It's starting to bother me that I use that word every time I want to quote someone: "She was like, 'Oh no!' "  Out with the valley girl.  The other resolution is to remove non-edifying talk about others from my conversations.  I hesitate to call it gossip because that seems to have become a Christian cliche - "I know I shouldn't gossip, but did you hear...?"  However, that's basically what I'm talking about - not slandering others.

I don't think that this is a huge problem in my life, but I want my thoughts about others to be more gracious.  I think that cutting negativity out of conversation is one way to do this.  So hold me to it!  I do think there is room for honesty in dialogue with trusted friends, but I know I could benefit by being more generous toward people with whom I am frustrated.

Here's a little video of the sweet pea talking to me.